FR2791519A1 - Animal feeding rack has pivoting arm automatically locked in position when neck of animal passes through rack - Google Patents

Abstract

Feeding rack comprises pivoting arm having in upper part sliding shaft (7) engaging pivoting rod (5) arranged above upper side frame (3). Rod has notches (6) in its upper part where shafts fall. Rod is held and guided by bearings (10), each in shape of stirrup whose median part (11) is fixed against upper side frame and whose branches (12) clamp rod preventing its upwards movement.

Description

The present invention relates to improvements to

feeding gates.

  In its simplest form, a headlock barrier consists of a succession of delimited openings, each one, by a vertical upright joining two horizontal beams, respectively

  upper and lower, and by a pivoting arm.

  The swivel arm can be locked to prevent access to the trough or to hold the animal and allow it to be fed or examined. The swivel arm can occupy two or three positions depending on whether it

  it is an ordinary headlock or a safety headlock.

  French patent N 76 13795 describes an ordinary feed fence, while

  that the US patent N 5373813 describes a safety lock.

  The problem posed consists in carrying out, automatically, the locking of the pivoting arm, in the retaining position, when the neck

of an animal crosses the barrier.

  In the state of the art this result is obtained by placing a rod above the upper spar comprising stops behind which can be supported retractable members located at the upper part of each arm. By pivoting the bar, it is possible to retract the abovementioned stops to unlock all the arms. Such a device is described, among others, in the aforementioned French patent. In this patent, a device is described comprising a yoke, at the upper end of each arm, the branches of which extend on either side of the pivoting rod, serve as a guide for a sliding shaft, forming the aforesaid retractable member, normally resting on said rod which has teeth, each having two faces, one, slightly inclined and forming a ramp on which the aforementioned shaft rises during the pivoting of the arm and, the other, substantially vertical behind which comes to bear said shaft at the end of rotation to ensure the locking of said arm by preventing its rotation in the opposite direction. In this position, the arm cannot continue its rotation because its lower part bears against a stop constituted, for example, by an extension of the upright on which

said arm is articulated.

  In the case of a safety lock, that is to say a lock according to which the pivoting arm must be able to pivot freely when it is unlocked so as to provide a triangular opening with a point at the top, the tooth described above is ineffective in ensuring

it alone locking.

  The solution which immediately comes to mind consists in using a second tooth arranged symmetrically with respect to the first and leaving between them sufficient space to allow the accommodation.

of the sliding shaft.

  This solution is not satisfactory for two essential reasons. The first lies in the fact that the presence of fixed projections on the swivel rod poses problems when fixing said

  rod which has a plurality of bearings.

  The second lies in the fact that, as the pivoting of the arm is brutal, since it results from the action of the neck of the animal on the lower part of said arm, the sliding shaft literally flies up on the tooth ramp and does not fall, as expected, into the notch formed by the vertical part of the two teeth: the locking

is therefore almost impossible.

  The present invention, which overcomes these drawbacks, consists in practicing, on the usual pivoting rod, notches in which

  the sliding trees fall from their arms.

  The present invention will be better understood from the description which

  will follow made with reference to the accompanying drawings by way of indicative example only, in which - Figure 1 is an elevational view of a safety lock fence; FIG. 2 is a partial view on a larger scale showing the device of the invention; FIG. 3 is a view, similar to that 2, showing the locking of the pivoting arm; FIG. 4 is a sectional view taken along line IV-IV of the

figure 3.

  Referring to FIG. 1, it can be seen that each pivoting arm 1 delimits, with an upright 2 and the side members 3 and 4, an opening to

variable section.

  When access is free, arm 1 is in position Pl and i I

  delimits a triangular opening point down.

  When an animal reaches the trough, it engages its neck in this opening and by lowering it rotates the arm according to the arrow Fi until the moment when the locking device opposes this movement and keeps it in position P2, the animal is then hampered. However, and as explained above, if the pivoting is abrupt, which is the general case, the sliding shaft of the arm passes over the retaining projection present on the rod 5 and the

arm comes to occupy position P3.

  According to the invention, the rod 5 has a notch 6 into which the shaft 7 of the arm falls during the pivoting of the latter so as to

  immobilize it in the desired position P2.

  In this way, the rod 5 has no roughness which can complicate its mounting in the usual bearings in order to make it

secured to the barrier.

  As there is no need to bring complicated and always bulky parts onto the rod, it is possible to use a rod whose diameter is much larger than the usual one and thus

  to increase the rigidity of this part.

  Thus, it is possible to use a rod whose diameter is equal to that of the tubes used to make the side members and, in doing so, to simplify the storage of the basic materials. In addition, this device, which does not use auxiliary parts machined separately and then fixed on the rod, has a cost price much lower than those known. According to another characteristic of the invention, at least one of the edges of each notch is connected to the upper part of the rod.

  by a part 9 inclined relative to the axis of said rod.

  In this way, and unlike the devices comprising a tooth connected to the rod by a ramp, the shaft 7 does not tend to be propelled upwards during the pivoting of the arm, but i I

  naturally descends part 9 and falls into notch 6.

  Although the description was made next to a headlock of

  safety, the device can be applied to an ordinary headlock.

Claims (3)

  1-Headlock barrier comprising a pivoting arm (1) having at its upper part a sliding shaft (7) capable of cooperating with a pivoting rod (5) disposed above the upper spar (3), characterized in that the rod (5) has, at its upper part,   notches (6) in which the trees (7) can fall from the arms.   2-Lock fence according to claim 1, characterized in that one (8), at least, of the edges of each notch is connected to the upper part of the rod by a part (9) inclined relative to the axis of said rod.   3-barrier according to any one of claims 1 and 2,   characterized in that the diameter of the rod (5) is substantially   equal to the diameter of the tubes used to make the side members.